Broccoli, Leek, Celery and Stilton Soup

I love Stilton and Broccoli soup. It’s a winter staple at my house, and a Christmas must. Yet on Boxing Day this year I’d planned my Broccoli and Stilton meal for four, but their were to be six of us for lunch. I set about baking some extra bread, and I had plenty of cheese and cream, but not enough broccoli to stretch my soup without turning it into a cheese, potato and cream soup garnished with broccoli.

I opted instead to raid some of the other green items in the refrigerator. Having done so in that emergency I think I’m going to make the multi-veg Broccoli soup any time I get the chance in future. The extra layers of leek and celery really added depth to the soup, making it extra delicious, whilst letting the star veg and cheese shine.

You can of course flex the proportions to match what you have available, soups are pretty forgiving of substitutions and amendments, as this one proves.

Prep time:10 min

Cook time:20 min

Ready in: 30 min

Serves: 6

Soup Ingredients

2 tbsp butter

2 leeks

2 sticks celery

1 fist sized potato

1lb broccoli

4 cups vegetable stock

1 1/2 cups crumbled Stilton or other creamy blue cheese

1/2 cup heavy cream

Soup Instructions

You’re going to be cutting up veggies and adding them to the pan, one after the other. There’s no need to do all your chopping ahead of time as you’ll only need to stand about for roughly the amount of time it would take to chop the next vegetable anyway.

You can adjust the texture of the soup by adding more or less vegetable stock, or cream. More will also help it to go that bit further in an emergency.

Melt the butter in a heavy based soup pan or casserole

Peel the potatoes and cut into small cubes, about 1/3 inch, add them to the butter, stirring around to coat them so they don’t stick, cover and move on

Clean the leeks and slice them into 1/4 inch coins

Add the leeks to the potatoes, stirring them about to mix them in, cover and move on

Clean and slice the celery, again roughly 1/4 inch crescents

Add the celery to the leeks, stirring to stop anything browning, oh, and then cover again before moving on

Chop the broccoli into florets, you can add any non-woody stalk too

Add the broccoli to the celery and stir it all about for a minute or two

Add three cups of the stock, it should just about cover the vegetables, if not, add some more til it does

Cover and cook for 10 minutes, no need to boil, just softening everything up whilst keeping it green

Poke the broccoli to check it’s softened (but not squishy)

Add the crumbled cheese and stir so it starts to dissolve

Slowly add the cream

Now take the pan off the heat and blend the soup. I use a stabmixer so I don’t have to pour the soup out, but you could use a liquidizer

Serve in individual bowls with fresh crusty bread

You can crumble extra Stilton over the top or add a swirl of cream if you’re feeling fancy!

You can make the soup ahead of time and just warm before serving. If I’m doing that I switch the steps so that I blend the soup before adding the dairy, then add the dairy during the warming phase. It just works better that way and prevents any separation.